Romanian lexis

The lexis of the Romanian language (or Daco-Romanian), a Romance language, has changed over the centuries as the language evolved from Vulgar Latin, to Common Romanian, to medieval, modern and contemporary Romanian.

Common Romanian[]

Romanian has inherited a large chunk of its core vocabulary from Latin. In a study of about 50,000 words, around 10,000 of the lexical items derived from the ancestral language. These comprise most basic concepts of society, for example:

om "human" (< Latin homō)
muiere "wife" (< Latin mulier)
fiu "son" (< Latin fīlius)
popor "folk" (< Latin populus)

Many words have not only changed their shape, but also their meaning during their evolution from Latin to Romanian. Such are:

bărbat "man" (< Latin barbātus "bearded")
femeie "woman" (< Latin familia "people belonging to a household")
inimă "heart" (< Latin anima "soul")
soț "husband" (< Latin socius "fellow")

Old Romanian[]

By the later Middle Ages, a great number of Slavic loanwords had already entered Romanian.

Among the basic Slavic loanwords are:

ceas clock
citi to read
crai king
curvă whore
da yes
drag dear
dragoste love
duh spirit, ghost
haină shirt
iubi to love
izvor source
mândru proud
muncă work
noroc luck
opri stop
porni start
praf dust
prieten friend
prost stupid; simple
rând row; order
sărac poor
sfânt holy
sfert quarter
slănină bacon
smântână sour cream
sută hundred
târg market
tigaie pan
trup body
veac century
vreme weather; time
zid wall

(see also Slavic influence on Romanian)

Modern Romanian[]

In the 19th century, as the Romanian society transitioned from rural and agricultural towards urban and industrial, the lexis underwent a vigorous enrichment with loanwords from its Romance relatives, French and Italian. Many scholarly and technical terms were also imported from Neo-Latin. Some words, especially of Greek (arvună, ipochimen, simandicos) and Turkish (acadea, beizadea, hatâr) origin, fell into relative disuse or acquired an ironic connotation.

Among the words which entered the language:

deja "already" (from French déjà)
jena "disturb" (from French gener)
medic "physician" (from Latin medicus)
servi "serve" (from French or Italian)
ziar "newspapers" (from Italian diario)

Romanian's core lexicon (2,581 words); Marius Sala, VRLR (1988)

A statistical analysis sorting Romanian words by etymological source carried out by Macrea (1961)^[1] based on the DLRM^[2] (49,649 words) showed the following makeup:^[3]

43% recent Romance loans (mainly French: 38.42%, Latin: 2.39%, Italian: 1.72%)
20% inherited Latin
11.5% Slavic (Old Church Slavonic: 7.98%, Bulgarian: 1.78%, Bulgarian-Serbian: 1.51%)
8.31% Unknown/unclear origin
3.62% Turkish
2.40% Modern Greek
2.17% Hungarian
1.77% German (including Austrian High German)^[4]
2.24% Onomatopoeic

If the analysis is restricted to a core vocabulary of 2,500 frequent, semantically rich and productive words, then the Latin inheritance comes first, followed by Romance and classical Latin neologisms, whereas the Slavic borrowings come third.

Romanian has a lexical similarity of 77% with Italian, 75% with French, 74% with Sardinian, 73% with Catalan, 72% with Portuguese and Rheto-Romance, 71% with Spanish.^[5]

Romanian according to word origin^[6]^[7]

Romance and Latin			78%
Slavic			14%
Germanic (German-based influence, English loanwords)			2.54%
Greek			1.7%
Others			5.49%

Nowadays, the longest word in Romanian is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconioză, with 44 letters,^[8] but the longest one admitted by the Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române ("Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language", DEX) is electroglotospectrografie, with 25 letters.^[9]^[10]

Turkish influence[]

Large parts of modern-day Romania were under Ottoman suzerainty for several centuries. As a result, exchanges in language, food and culture occurred, and Romanian has absorbed several words of Turkish origin. A small ethnic Turkish minority exists in Dobruja.

abanos "ebony" (< Turkish abanoz)
arpagic "chive" (< Turkish arpacık)
baclava "baclava" (< Turkish baklava)
bacșiṣ "tip, gratuity" (< Turkish bahşiş)
basma "kerchief" (< Turkish basma)
batal "wether" (< Turkish batal)
belea "misfortune" (< Turkish bela)
boi "to paint" (< Turkish boy)
bre "hey" (< Turkish bre)
briceag "pocket knife" (< Turkish bıçak)
buluc "pile" (< Turkish bölük)
burghiu "drill" (< Turkish bürgü)
bursuc "badger" (< Turkish porsuk)
caimac "cream" (< Turkish kaymak)
caisă "apricot" (< Turkish kayısı)
calcană "turbot" (< Turkish kalkan balığı)
caldarâm "pavement" (< Turkish kaldırım)
capcană "trap" (< Turkish kapkan)
caraghios "funny" (< Turkish Karagöz)
cat "storey" (< Turkish kat)

Lots of the Ottoman and Phanariot Greek words have acquired pejorative meanings compared with their original meaning:

Turkish çubuk ("stick") became ciubuc ("the tube of a hookah") and now is "bribe", since, like a pipe, it is offered to ease a deal.^[11]
Ottoman خزینه, hazine ("treasure, treasure chamber") became hazna ("septic tank, latrine").^[11]
Phanariot Greek πρα(γ)ματεία, pra(gh)matia ("practical-minded man") became pramatie ("immoral person"). Its cognate pragmatic from French pragmatique has maintained a neutral meaning.^[11]
Arabic ‏رَاحَة الْحُلْقُوم‎, rāḥa(t) al-ḥulqūm ("throat comfort"), through Turkish rahat lokum ("Turkish delights") became Romanian rahat ("shit").^[12]

References[]

^ Macrea, Dimitrie (1961). "Originea și structura limbii româneb (7–45)". Probleme de lingvistică română (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Științifică. p. 32.
^ Macrea, Dimitrie, ed. (1958). Dictionarul limbii române moderne (in Romanian). Bucharest: Academia Română. Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela, ed. (2013). The Grammar of Romanian (First ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780199644926.
^ Hans Dama, "Lexikale Einflüsse im Rumänischen aus dem österreichischen Deutsch" ("Lexical influences of 'Austrian'-German on the Romanian Language") Archived 18 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
^ "Romanian". Ethnologue.
^ Marius Sala (coord), Mihaela Bîrlădeanu, Maria Iliescu, Liliana Macarie, Ioana Nichita, Mariana Ploae-Hanganu, Maria Theban, Ioana Vintilă-Rădulescu, Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor romanice (VRLR) (Bucharest: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1988).
^ Vocabularul reprezentativ diferă de vocabularul fundamental (VF) și de fondul principal lexical (FP). Cf. SCL (Studii și cercetări lingvistice), an XXVII (1976), nr. 1, p. 61-66 și SCL (1974) nr. 3, p. 247. Cf. Theodor Hristea, "Structura generală a lexicului românesc", Sinteze de limba română, eds., Theodor Hristea (coord.), Mioara Avram, Grigore Brâncuș, Gheorghe Bulgăr, Georgeta Ciompec, Ion Diaconescu, Rodica Bogza-Irimie & Flora Șuteu (Bucharest: 1984), 13.
^ Bălhuc, Paul (15 January 2017). "Câte litere are cel mai lung cuvânt din limba română și care este singurul termen ce conține toate vocalele". Adevărul (in Romanian).
^ "Electroglotospectrografie". Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române (in Romanian). Retrieved 10 February 2021.
^ "Curiozități lingvistice: cele mai lungi cuvinte din limba română". Dicție.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 10 February 2021.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Funeriu, Ionel (2019). "Turcisme". Biografii lexicale (in Romanian). Brumar. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
^ Cioranescu, Alexandru (1958–1966). "rahát". Dicționarul etimologic român (in Romanian). Tenerife: Universidad de la Laguna. Retrieved 17 October 2020.

[Macrea-1] Macrea, Dimitrie (1961). "Originea și structura limbii româneb (7–45)". Probleme de lingvistică română (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Științifică. p. 32.

[2] Macrea, Dimitrie, ed. (1958). Dictionarul limbii române moderne (in Romanian). Bucharest: Academia Română. Missing or empty |title= (help)

[Dindelegan-3] Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela, ed. (2013). The Grammar of Romanian (First ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780199644926.

[iit.iit.tuiasi.ro-4] Hans Dama, "Lexikale Einflüsse im Rumänischen aus dem österreichischen Deutsch" ("Lexical influences of 'Austrian'-German on the Romanian Language") Archived 18 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine (in German)

[5] "Romanian". Ethnologue.

[VRLR-6] Marius Sala (coord), Mihaela Bîrlădeanu, Maria Iliescu, Liliana Macarie, Ioana Nichita, Mariana Ploae-Hanganu, Maria Theban, Ioana Vintilă-Rădulescu, Vocabularul reprezentativ al limbilor romanice (VRLR) (Bucharest: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1988).

[7] Vocabularul reprezentativ diferă de vocabularul fundamental (VF) și de fondul principal lexical (FP). Cf. SCL (Studii și cercetări lingvistice), an XXVII (1976), nr. 1, p. 61-66 și SCL (1974) nr. 3, p. 247. Cf. Theodor Hristea, "Structura generală a lexicului românesc", Sinteze de limba română, eds., Theodor Hristea (coord.), Mioara Avram, Grigore Brâncuș, Gheorghe Bulgăr, Georgeta Ciompec, Ion Diaconescu, Rodica Bogza-Irimie & Flora Șuteu (Bucharest: 1984), 13.

[8] Bălhuc, Paul (15 January 2017). "Câte litere are cel mai lung cuvânt din limba română și care este singurul termen ce conține toate vocalele". Adevărul (in Romanian).

[9] "Electroglotospectrografie". Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române (in Romanian). Retrieved 10 February 2021.

[10] "Curiozități lingvistice: cele mai lungi cuvinte din limba română". Dicție.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 10 February 2021.

[turcisme-11] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Funeriu, Ionel (2019). "Turcisme". Biografii lexicale (in Romanian). Brumar. Retrieved 17 October 2020.

[rahat-12] Cioranescu, Alexandru (1958–1966). "rahát". Dicționarul etimologic român (in Romanian). Tenerife: Universidad de la Laguna. Retrieved 17 October 2020.

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